A poor sales performance over an extended period of time normally means there are some problems with the team or an individual sales person. While it can be tempting to continue doing what you’ve done before, especially if this has proven successful, the time comes when you need to start looking at some reasons why what you’re doing isn’t working. Have a look below at five of the most common reasons for extended poor sales performance and you may find the key to your recent downturn.

Not learning from mistakes

If you’ve been missing sales recently what were the reasons the prospects didn’t go ahead? While some of these may have been unavoidable it is highly likely that some changes to your sales pitch could have improved your chances in at least some of these meetings. Always ask prospects why they chose not to go ahead with the sale and then look at your pitch to see if you can address that concern better in future. As long as you keep focusing on improving yourself and your team’s skills you are likely to turn round the dip in performance.

Not trying new things

If you’ve been having problems with your selling for a while and things aren’t picking up then you need to be making some changes and trying something different when pitching. If you keep doing the same thing you’re likely to get the same results – and if you’re currently getting nothing out of your sales strategy then you’ll probably continue to get nothing. Make some changes and try something different.

Failing to take responsibility

When things aren’t going our way it can be easy to blame everything else but ourselves. Perhaps it’s the product – it just isn’t good enough. Maybe the economy isn’t doing well and that’s why you’re not converting so many offers, or you just aren’t getting the quality of leads that you used to get. All of these and more could be true – but blaming them will not help you get more sales. If you’re not selling as much as you used to the most likely possibility is that your performance has dropped. Take responsibility for this and work hard at improving and you may well start to see increased sales again, even if other circumstances don’t improve.

Negative attitude

If sales have been going poorly for some time then morale can drop for individuals and the team as a whole. A drop in morale and the resulting negative attitudes can bring with it a further drop in performance. Examine yourself and your team’s attitude towards their work – have any negative attitudes crept in? Consider how you can start approaching sales again with a more positive attitude. If you’ve been on a bad run you may want to start celebrating any small success as a way of raising morale and focusing on the positives rather than the negatives.

Not listening to your clients enough

When selling you should be listening to your potential clients more than you should be talking to them. If you give them the space to share and ask the right questions people will tell you exactly what they’re finding hard in the industry right now, what the problems they’re having are and any concerns they might have with placing an order for you. Given time they will give you all the information you need to not only start selling successfully again but to then take that success and build upon it further.

A poor run of sales can be tough both financially and mentally but by observing and correcting these mistakes in your sales technique you can start to sell again with confidence, the key is to keep working hard and never rest on your past successes.